'Captain America: Civil War' Teams Will Fight For Two Reasons, According To The Director

The directors of “Captain America: Civil War” are busy in the press as the film's May 6 release draws near. After addressing the new Spider-Man costume and teasing multiple post-credits sequences, the Russo brothers are now sharing some new details about what makes the heroes in the film fight in the first place.

When Marvel released the plot synopsis for “Civil War,” it teased the introduction of the Sokovia Accords, designed by the world’s government to stop people with superpowers from operating without government oversight. Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) will lead his team of heroes against Captain America (Chris Evans) and his team over the issue. However, those who have been paying attention to the film’s trailers will have no doubt figured out that the rift between the two Avengers goes much deeper than a mere political scuffle.

Speaking to Empire about the film, co-director Joe Russo got to talking about the highly tumultuous relationship between Steve Rogers (Evans) and his former best friend and war ally, Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan).

“Is he good or is he bad?” Russo teased. “Steve has to answer that question for himself, and there are other characters in the movie who hold the opposite point of view. It becomes very explosive. It incites a lot of conflict.”

In “Captain America: Winter Soldier,” it was revealed that Bucky had survived his apparent death in World War II only to become a brainwashed super-soldier working throughout history for the villainous organization Hydra. After Rogers broke through his programming and conditioning, Bucky went into hiding and avoided his friend until he was seen in the post-credits scene of "Ant-Man." Apparently, the question the movie will tackle is whether Bucky is worthy of being on Team Cap, or if he’s merely part of the problem that people like Iron Man and his team are talking about.

In the most recent trailer for the film, this conflict is teased a little bit through a voiceover in which Tony Stark (Downey) is talking about the world being wrong about someone. He could be referring to Cap, but the trailer lingers on a shot of Bucky, so at the very least the nugget is meant to be planted in the minds of fans. Then again, Iron Man may just have a bone to pick with Bucky since he’s stealing his best friend and, apparently, tries to shoot him in the trailer seen below.